


Match

by the_butler



Series: Prompts [25]
Category: DCU, Green Lantern - All Media Types, The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M, Online Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26510737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_butler/pseuds/the_butler
Summary: Barry Allen is a gay man in his late twenties who’s never been in a relationship before, thanks to his unrequited crush on his straight best friend Hal Jordan. But things change when he downloads a dating app thanks to his other best friend Iris West.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Hal Jordan
Series: Prompts [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1349839
Comments: 6
Kudos: 74





	Match

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: you and your best friend match on a dating app.
> 
> Wanted to write something fun and light-hearted and, hopefully, just a one-shot. Note to self, just a one-shot!

Barry Allen, a shy, nerdy man in his late twenties, had never been in a relationship before. And so when his best friend Iris suggested he tried dating apps, he was hesitant to say the least. He couldn’t even hack it in the real world, he thought, he didn’t need the extra challenge of being alluring on the internet. But Iris kept on his case, again and again, so next Wine Wednesday, when they hang out together and drink wine and whine about their week, a drunk Barry gave in and downloaded a popular dating app. Iris giddily guided him through the whole process. She took a very flattering photo of him, uploaded it, and then typed out his profile, arguing with Barry about what should be there, and set his preferences. 

“We don’t want you getting some jerks, okay? Just trust me.” Iris said, eyes glued to his phone. Barry rolled his eyes and huffed but let her get her way, sipping at his wine glass all the while. “There! All set up. Now to see who matches you.”

A couple of decent guys came up, but Barry didn’t know what to do with them, and Iris insisted that some flaw or other made them incompatible. So he kept swiping left, and then a profile came up that stopped him in his tracks.

“What’s wrong?” Iris said, sipping at her wine.

“Er, nothing!” Barry said hurriedly, and put down his phone.

“Why? What came up? Oh my god you probably like them, lemme see!” Iris said and she swiped Barry’s phone too fast for him to stop her. “Oh!”

And there, on the app, was Hal Jordan. Barry’s other best friend. Six foot two, with piercing green eyes, handsome, charming, good sense of humor, flirty, oh just about everything Barry could ever want in a man. And to his knowledge, straight. Flustered, Barry swiped his phone back from Iris’ unresisting hands.

“Maybe it’s a fake profile?” Iris said, confused. It was an app for gay men. 

Barry read through the profile. From the very first sentence, he knew it was Hal. It sounded just like the man. But Barry never knew Hal to date men- he always dated women to Barry’s knowledge. He read on, and was quite convinced it was Hal. But it posed a serious question, why was Hal on this app? And what was he supposed to do now?

“Swipe right. Let’s see if it’s really him!” Iris goaded.

Barry gave her a look, to which she rolled her eyes in reply. “Yes, I know you’ve been in love with him for forever but come on aren’t you a little curious?”

“I am not in love with him.” Barry said, just to say something, but the heat in his cheeks betrayed him. Iris just laughed at him, making him color some more.

“Oh yeah and I’m the queen of England.”

“Whatever.” Barry said as he threw his phone somewhere on the couch and drained his wine glass in one go.

“Okay, for the interest of science, and justice, two things you are very into, you have to swipe right.”

“I don’t get how those things are connected?” Barry answered, empty wine glass extended,

Iris got the bottle and refilled his glass as she said, “well, one: think of it as an experiment. Two, think of it as like catching someone who could potentially be using Hal as a catfish on this app.”

That got Barry curious against his better judgement.

“Just swipe right. He could swipe left for all we know.”

“Ugh, fine. If it’ll stop you nagging me.”

“In pursuit of justice!” Iris said giddily while raising her glass. It made Barry chuckle, but he raised his glass as well and answered in return, “to justice.”

And then he looked at his phone, stared at the picture of a smiling Hal, drank the wine all in one go and then swiped right.

He put the phone away and started talking with Iris about other things, pushing the matter out of his mind. After all, it could very well be some rando on the internet posing as Hal. As if Hal would even need to be on a dating app, much less a gay one. He’s straight, of course he’s straight. That was Barry’s problem from the start. They met through mutual friends in college and then ended up becoming fast friends. Well, at least on Hal’s end. On Barry’s end, it was love at first sight. And while he was still on the fence about his sexuality back then, and god did it mess him up real bad, he had largely come to terms with them only ever being friends. Now he was sure he was gay, and he was sure Hal wasn’t. 

It wasn’t until when he was going to bed, yawning and stretching and feeling generally good about the night thanks to the wine and the company (who was already snoring on the sofa, no matter how much she protested she didn’t snore), that he even remembered the whole thing with the dating app. He had a habit of checking his emails before going to bed and when he opened his phone it was still on the app, and there was a message. Curious, he opened it and read, 

“Bear?”

Which was Hal’s nickname for him. Oh gods. It really was Hal. Suddenly sobering up was not a good feeling, it left him light headed, but reading that one word was enough to flush out the bottle of wine he’d imbibed earlier. His thumb hovered over the screen keypad, not knowing what to say. He went back and forth, and saw that there was a read receipt on the message, and cursed. Now he really had to reply. He settled on,

“Hal?”

He sat on the edge of his bed, unconsciously gripping the bedding with one hand as he watched the three dots bounce that indicated a reply was being written. Eventually, a message was sent. It said, 

“Well this is awkward.”

Immediately Barry shut down the app and stared into nothing. It was him. It really was Hal. He looked back on his phone, and then it started ringing, making him jump and fumble with the phone. He raised it close to his face and peeked at the caller ID. It said ‘Hal’. He swiped to answer and held the phone to his ear gingerly. 

“Hello?”

“Hey.” Hal sounded unsure over the phone, and then chuckled. “So... we both swiped right huh?”

“I thought it was somebody posing as you!” He hurriedly replied, and Hal chuckled again.

“So did I.”

They both laughed awkwardly, and it petered out into silence. Eventually, Barry mustered up the courage to ask.

“So... why were you on that app? I thought you were straight?”

A beat, and then a sigh. “Er. Surprise? I’m bi?”

And it was like the world shattered and reassembled itself all at once. “What?” Barry exploded. Hal was nervously laughing at the other end. 

“Sorry I came out to you this way.”

“Since when?” Barry asked again urgently.

“Um... I dunno. Been curious for a while. And then maybe a year ago? Tried dating some dudes. Didn’t work out obviously.” Hal chuckled again. Barry was still agog. 

“And you never thought to tell me?”

“I... I didn’t know how to?”

“Hal, I am your best friend!” Barry said indignantly.

“Yeah. Yeah. Right. Obviously. Best friend.” And there was something in Hal’s voice that cut through Barry’s indignation. He settled down, and thought about what to say next. 

“So why did we match?”

“Uh...”

“It’s algorithms and stuff, Iris told me about it earlier, but you put in what you want in a partner and the app looks for a match.”

Another sigh from Hal. “Would it surprise you to know that I’ve been looking for some cute, nerdy blue eyed blondes?”

Barry’s breath caught in his throat. “Have you?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“And you?”

“Um.”

“What were you looking for?”

“I’d rather... I’d rather not say.”

“Come on bear. Why’d we match?”

Barry shut his eyes and said in a rush, “I was looking for tall, handsome, green eyed brunettes.”

Hal chuckled again, but now the hint of nervousness was gone. “So I guess we’re a match.”

Barry opened his eyes and finally started to breath. “I... I guess so.”

Another beat of silence, and then Hal spoke again. “So I guess... are you free Saturday night?”

“Um. Yeah. Why?”

“For our date, silly. Isn’t that why you were on that app?”

Barry felt his face heat up. It was coming true. All his dreams were coming true and it was all thanks to that stupid app and drunk Iris on the couch. “Yeah.” He breathed out.

“Good. Pick you up at eight then.”

“Okay.”

“All right then. Good night, bear.” 

“Good. Good night.” Barry stuttered, and then the call was ended. He looked at his phone in disbelief. Then he swiped to the app, stared at it, then deleted it before falling onto his bed face first.


End file.
